Watch Kemi deliver an important speech today below 👇:
Read Kemi's full speech below 👇:
Good morning everyone, and thank you all for coming.
So, shall we talk about what has been going on over the past few days?
At a time when NATO is under threat.
At a time when we were trying to stop Labour surrendering British territory in the Chagos Islands.
At a time when we were fighting to save Britain’s hospitality industry.
What were other parties doing?
Psychodrama.
The Labour Party scheming to bring in a new contender to challenge the Prime Minister.
Reform UK distracting everyone from Labour’s mess, dressing up a defection rally as a veterans’ event.
Everyone is fed up with this style of politics.
We need to get serious.
We have a government that is letting us down.
It is making bad decisions.
It is damaging our economy.
It is crushing business.
It is driving unemployment and inflation up.
It is piling debt on us.
It is giving away our sovereign territory.
It is allowing our veterans to be dragged through the courts.
They must be stopped.
And they must be stopped with Conservative policies and plans.
Some people have been questioning what type of Conservative Party I’m running.
Well, let me tell you.
A party that wants stronger borders and has done the work to leave the ECHR.
A party that wants to stop bankrupting our country by deindustrialising and destroying manufacturing under the guise of Net Zero.
We’ve done the work and will repeal the Climate Change Act.
We are a party that will stop our country’s welfare addiction.
We’ve done the work and set out plans to save £23 billion from welfare.
This is a party that wants people to get on in life.
We’ve done the work and made a fully funded plan to scrap stamp duty.
That’s the party I’m leading.
A party of serious people, not drama queens.
But tell me, who is going to fix this country’s problems?
We have a government that is letting us down and making bad decisions.
We are exposing it and scoring hits.
Forcing U-turns on their stupid decisions on family farms, on winter fuel, on pubs.
And every time we have the government on the ropes, what does Reform UK do?
They distract from the work we are doing by pulling silly stunts.
Punching us from behind and letting Labour off the hook.
Reform don’t care whether the government is making life harder for you.
They don’t care whether your son or daughter can get a job.
They don’t care that unemployment has increased every single month since Labour came into office.
That graduate recruitment is at its lowest level on record.
They don’t care that youth unemployment is surging.
We do.
They don’t know how to fix any of it, yet they attack the people who do.
Not because they disagree with our policies, but because they want to destroy the Conservative Party.
I know, because they have said so.
So let me be clear.
The Conservative Party is going in a new direction.
I was not elected to reheat the party with 1990s policies.
I was not elected to dismantle the party so that Nigel Farage can finally have a go.
I was elected by Conservative Party members to renew and rebuild.
That is exactly what I am doing.
But we’re not just renewing with policy.
We are also renewing standards, conduct, discipline and culture.
And the people who don’t agree with this direction need to get out of the way.
There are people in politics who don’t really know what they are doing, or why.
They just want to be in the room.
They want to be on top.
They want access, attention and advancement.
And when they don’t get their way, they create drama.
What we need are people who are going to help Get Britain Working Again.
That means we have to be a truly Conservative party.
So I won’t apologise to those walking away because they don’t like the new direction.
We only want Conservatives.
But to those who are defecting to Reform UK, who don’t actually disagree with our policies, I will say this.
I’m sorry you didn’t win the leadership contest.
I’m sorry you didn’t get a job in the shadow cabinet.
I’m sorry you didn’t get into the Lords.
But you are not offering a plan to fix this country.
This is a tantrum dressed up as politics.
When my kids have a tantrum, I don’t give up or change my mind.
I send them to their room.
And I say to everyone else, if that tantrum ever found its way into government, we would all pay the price.
Because just like Labour, they do not have a plan for government.
But there’s another group of former politicians who are in denial that the world has changed.
They don’t want to admit that immigration is too high.
They don’t believe that the structures of the Blair era are badly broken.
Those structures are responsible for the problems we have with our borders, our veterans, and not being able to choose who gets our public services.
This is my message to them.
We’re about the future, not the past.
We’re not trying to recreate 2006.
It’s not 2016 any more.
We are not refighting those battles.
It’s 2026, and the world has changed.
This is about the future.
I am building a Conservative Party for the next decade and the next generation.
Global mass migration is a real problem.
It is going to take some very, very tough decisions to fix it.
Simply saying, “We need immigrants to fix the NHS, so we’re not going to look at it,” is not good enough.
Especially when, at the same time, home-grown doctors can’t get jobs.
This is nonsensical.
I am a Conservative.
The principles that I grew up with are still my principles now.
They haven’t changed.
I have stood by those principles when we were winning and when we were losing.
And so have all of the true Conservatives in my party.
The questions we must answer have changed.
The people we are shouldn’t.
I will do whatever is necessary to fix our economy, our borders and our country.
And I will use Conservative values to show how it can be done.
Labour believes the answer is more state control.
Reform believe the same thing.
They just want their hands on the levers.
We don’t believe in more state control.
We believe in you.
We will do our job and then get out of the way so that you can do yours.
This is what a party of the right looks like.
It doesn’t look like a veterans’ event that turns into a defection rally.
It looks like James Cartlidge and Mark Francois working day in, day out to protect our veterans from prosecution.
And unlike others, after they do that work, they turn up to Parliament to vote to make it happen.
A party of the right doesn’t look like a one-day announcement on opposing Net Zero that falls apart the next day.
It looks like Claire Coutinho and Andrew Bowie defending our oil and gas sector every day.
Fighting for cheap, reliable power.
Refusing to apologise for British energy and British jobs.
It looks like Mel Stride and Helen Whately finding £47 billion in savings so we can cut tax and get our economy moving.
A party of the right doesn’t tiptoe around the problem of Islamism in Britain.
It looks like Nick Timothy exposing what happened in the West Midlands with the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans.
Forcing accountability all the way to the top of the police.
That is what it looks like.
Our mission is simple.
Get Britain Working Again.
And I have a talented team.
I can actually put together a shadow cabinet bigger than four people.
And no, this isn’t about left or right.
It’s about right or wrong.
We are right.
They are all wrong.
Some people say we need to split the difference and find the centre ground.
It’s not about the centre ground.
It’s about the common ground.
And it’s about common sense.
People in Britain want secure borders.
They want to be better off.
If people want a political home that will fix the economy, sort out our borders, and give hope to the next generation, there is a home.
It’s the Conservative Party.
We will deliver a stronger economy, stronger borders and a stronger country.
In just 34 days’ time, Rachel Reeves will deliver her Spring Statement.
Yes, exactly.
I am just as worried as you are.
Since the last disastrous Budget, she has already U-turned on family farm tax, thank you very much Vicky.
And business rates for pubs, thank you Andrew Griffith.
This is a government completely at sea when it comes to the economy.
So here’s my message to business owners.
To families struggling with the cost of living.
To young people hoping for their first job.
Keep going.
Keep fighting.
We are with you.
This Prime Minister is weak and has no backbone.
He bends under pressure.
And that’s my job, making him bend.
I am not going to be blown off course.
My Conservative Party are going to fight to get this government to keep changing course.
Because they are doing so much damage.
And there is an alternative.
It’s one we have set out with our plan to cut spending, cut tax and back business.
So we can get Britain working again.
There are five weeks to push Rachel Reeves.
Her Spring Statement should be an economic rescue Budget for Britain.
If she knows what she is doing, she should tear up her policies.
She should U-turn on more of her mistakes.
She should adopt our plan.
Because we are the only party that is even thinking about the economy right now.
We are the only party that will fix Britain.
Labour and Reform are fighting the battles of the past.
The world has changed.
And I am building a Conservative Party for the future.
Something exciting.
About the jobs of the future.
The defence of the future.
Finding Britain a strong place in the world.
We can do this.
We will do this.
We win by rebuilding trust with a Conservative offer that is clear and confident.
Bold and believable.
Order, security, growth and fairness for those who play by the rules.
Not for those who cheat the system.
So we are going to live by our values.
And deliver our plan through excellence.
This is the message I want to leave you with today.
The Conservative Party is now looking for its next generation of MPs.
I’m looking for excellence.
Excellence in standards, conduct, discipline and culture.
We are building an army that is going to deliver meritocracy.
Dismantle the bureaucratic class.
And get Britain working again.
We want people with life experience.
People who want to get on with the job.
It is hard to get onto our candidates’ list.
And it should be.
Because when people see the next generation of Conservative MPs, they will see the best of the best.
Unlike some parties, full of people who start problems and run away.
I am building a party full of people with answers.
Like my shadow cabinet.
Like my parliamentary party.
It’s time for a new generation of politicians.
If you are worried about what Labour are doing to our economy.
If you despair about the direction that others would take this country in.
Come and talk to us.
We are a party of common sense.
If you like hard work.
If you like thinking about difficult problems and working with smart people.
We want people who can help us fix the nation’s economy.
If you want to see public sector spending under control.
If you want real economic growth.
If you want to see the borders controlled, with firmness not cruelty.
Come and talk to us.
We’re about people uniting behind the right solutions.
Come and join my new Conservative Party.
And help us get Britain working again.
